U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,881 of Jan. 23, 1968 describes a drafting table in which the vertically-adjustable table top is counterbalanced by a mass. This mass must have sufficient weight and, therefore, precise manual adjustment of the table top is difficult because of the inertia of the whole system. In order to overcome this disadvantage, the same inventor obtained U.S. Pat. No. 3,370,556 dated Feb. 27, 1968, in which the counterweight is replaced by a complicated system including an arm pivoted at one end of the frame of the drafting table, a carriage movable along the arm and springs interconnecting the carriage and the frame. Such a system is expensive to manufacture and difficult to adjust so as to have a precise counterbalancing action over the entire range of vertical adjustable movement of the table top. However, this system is an improvement over U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,881, since the overall weight of the counterweight system is decreased and less inertia is encountered when manually adjusting the table top.